Mosaic Postcards from Mercury

On its journey to become the first spacecraft to orbit Mercury, NASA’s MErcury Surface, Space ENvironment, GEochemistry, and Ranging (MESSENGER) spacecraft has followed a trajectory that included three flybys of the innermost planet. During the flybys, images captured by the Mercury Dual Imaging System revealed parts of the planet’s surface never before seen at close range, as well as high-resolution views of craters, crater rays, scarps, faults, and volcanic vents and flows. To help students and teachers better understand this revealing new look at Mercury, the MESSENGER Education and Public Outreach team will share these high-resolution images of Mercury's surface throughout the upcoming Year of the Solar System. By means of an intriguing format that mimics methods used by the MESSENGER team, a series of images printed at large postcard size will each highlight a small "slice" of Mercury, such as a crater or fault. The individual cards can then be pieced together, puzzle-style, on a poster-sized grid to reveal a larger mosaic view of the planet. Each card contains engaging text, the URL for an accompanying website, and coordinates for that region of the planet, helping students understand scientific concepts related to and revealed by MESSENGER's journey. The first set of cards will feature scarps, volcanic plains, the topography of a crater and the composition of its interior units, rayed craters, nested craters, and a deposit produced by explosive volcanic eruptions. Cards will be available for free on the accompanying website, distributed by MESSENGER Educator Fellows, or handed out at meetings, conferences, and workshops.